Chat Space System and Method

1. A chat space system, comprising: at least one computer system; and an audible chat space application for managing an audible chat space hosted on the at least one computer system that, when executed on the at least one computer system, receives a plurality of audio recordings, at least some of the audio recordings formatted to initiate one of a plurality of chat themes and the other audio recordings associated with one of the chat themes, posts the plurality of audio recordings to the audible chat space; converts a chat theme audio title provided for each of the audio recordings formatted to initiate one of the chat themes to a chat theme text title, stores the audio recordings according to chat themes, enables navigation of the chat themes by displaying a separate icon for each of the chat themes, signaling an activity level for each of the chat themes based on adjustable icon attributes, and presenting audio recordings posted for a chat theme in response to selection of a corresponding icon by a user, in response to receiving a request from a first device for a list of chat themes, retrieves the chat theme text titles from storage and transmits the chat theme text titles to the first device, and in response to receiving a request from a second device for a summary of a first one of the chat themes, retrieves a sample portion of the audio recording formatted to initiate the first one of the chat themes and the audio recordings associated with the first chat theme from storage and transmits to the second device the sample portion of the audio recording formatted to initiate the first one of the chat themes and the audio recordings associated with the first chat theme.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the audible chat application further determines a ranking of the chat themes based on the audio recordings associated with each chat theme and causes a list of the chat themes to be displayed with an indication of the ranking of the chat themes.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the ranking is based on at least one of the number of audio recordings associated with each chat theme, the rate at which additional audio recordings are associated with each chat theme over a time interval, and an average length of the audio recordings associated with each chat theme.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the chat space application determines when interest in a first chat theme drops below a threshold interest level and removes the initiating audio recording that initiated the first chat theme and the other audio recordings associated with the first chat theme from the audible chat space.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein in response to receiving a request including at least one keyword from the first device, the chat space application searches the chat theme audio titles based on the at least one keyword and returns a list of chat themes to the first device that match the at least one keyword.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the chat space application stores the audio recordings in one of on the computer system and in a database, and wherein the database stores profile information for participants of the audible chat space including technical capabilities of each participant's device used with the audible chat space.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the chat space application deletes or truncates audio recordings that exceed a size threshold prior to their being posted to the audible chat space.

8. A method of providing an audible chat space, comprising: receiving a plurality of voice chat messages, each of the voice chat messages including a chat title, each chat title identifying a discussion thread of the audible chat space; discarding voice chat messages that exceed a maximum file size; storing voice chat messages that do not exceed the maximum file size; posting the voice chat messages that do not exceed the maximum file size to the audible chat space; for each chat title, determining a popularity of the chat title based on analyzing the stored voice chat messages that include the chat title; upon entry of a first device to the audible chat space, transmitting to the first device a preview portion of the discussion threads of the audible chat space; upon selection of a list of discussion threads by the first device, transmitting to the first device a text list of chat titles; upon selection of a discussion thread by the first device, transmitting to the first device the stored voice chat messages having the chat title that identifies the selected discussion thread; and enabling navigation of the chat themes by displaying a separate icon for each of the chat themes, signaling an activity level for each of the chat themes based on adjustable icon attributes, and presenting audio recordings posted for a chat theme in response to selection of a corresponding icon by a user.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the relevance of the chat title is determined based on one of the number of chat messages associated with the chat title, the rate that chat messages associated with the chat title are stored, a number of different participants associated with the chat title, and an average size of the chat messages associated with the chat title.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the text list of chat titles includes an indication of the popularity of each of the chat titles.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the text list of chat titles are transmitted to the first device in order based on the popularity of each of the chat titles.

12. The method of claim 8 , further including discarding a voice chat message associated with a restricted user.

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein the preview portion of the discussion threads comprises a portion of each of the voice chat messages that initiate a discussion thread.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the portion consists of a maximum of ten seconds for each of the voice chat messages that initiate a discussion thread.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing an audible chat space program for managing an audible chat space that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to: receive a plurality of audio recordings, at least some of the audio recordings formatted to initiate one of a plurality of chat themes and the other audio recordings associated with one of the chat themes, post the plurality of audio recordings to the audible chat space; enable navigation of the chat themes by displaying a separate icon for each of the chat themes, signaling an activity level for each of the chat themes based on adjustable icon attributes, and presenting audio recordings posted for a chat theme in response to selection of a corresponding icon by a user, convert a chat theme audio title provided for each of the audio recordings formatted to initiate one of the chat themes to a chat theme text title, in response to receiving a request from a first device for a list of chat themes, transmit to the first device the chat theme text titles, and in response to receiving a request from a second device for a summary of a first one of the chat themes, transmit to the second device a sample portion of the audio recording formatted to initiate the first one of the chat themes and the audio recordings associated with the first chat theme.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the audible chat space program causes the processor to store received audio recordings which are limited to less than about a maximum size threshold.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the maximum size threshold is about sixty seconds.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the audible chat space program causes the processor to delete stored audio recordings associated with a chat theme that is determined to have less than a threshold amount of importance.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18 , wherein the importance of a chat theme is based on one of a most recent activity on the chat theme, a rate of activity on the chat theme, and a rate of requesting audio recordings from the chat theme.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein each sample portion comprises less than about a first ten seconds of its corresponding audio recording.